Happy Sunday readers! I know I’ve been a bit radio silent on you and it’s because spring is (sort of) here and there are lots of changes about! My husband started a new job this week, which has left us a bit out of sorts. Having him getting up and ready at the same time as me in the morning is leaving me rather flustered in the mornings (and questioning why we ever thought 1 bathroom would be enough for the 2 of us in this house).

With that my focuses have and will be shifting a bit from cooking to some more projects around the house. Trying to get myself organized and finish these projects! 2 weeks ago we went through and cleaned out our home office. It was a disaster- you know, that one room everyone has where they just put things that you can’t find a home for. Well we organized it and I went out and bought us a fresh new carpet and some wall mounts for my husbands guitars. He has about 5 that just sit on floor stands. In a small room with 2 huge desks and a big bookcase that doesn’t leave much room for walking.

It’s a small step, but we’re going to get going now!

My next project was going to be to spruce up our living room but with all the commotion in the mornings I think I will have to rethink my bathroom (and where I keep all my makeup and hair product- Brett’s going insane!).

On thing that has been nice is I’ve taken a few Friday’s off from work to use up some extra vacation time. It’s been nice to have an extra day to my weekend to clean, run errands and of course- cook! Last Friday I turned up my tunes and decided to make a flour-less dark chocolate cake. I don’t know why the recipe caught my eye, as I’m not much of a baker. 

The good news is that this cake is gluten free! Yippy- for all you gluten intolerant folks. I personally am able to partake in the delicious treats made of flour, but I felt it was worth mentioning in case there are a few of you out there. It’s also Kosher for Passover (that’s soon right?), as long as you use kosher powdered sugar (or skip it).

This cake was the perfect opportunity to use the home-made vanilla extract my friend, Stacey, had given me! Yes, I would make an entire cake for the use of one home-made ingredient that was gifted to me.

For those of you who don’t know, Stacey is my weekend yoga, liquid lunch partner and also Cheese and Weim’s unofficial proof reader. If you ever read my posts within 10 minutes of them being posted and find a ton of errors- just wait a few more minutes, refresh and I will have corrected them after my proof-reader sends me all my mistakes to fix. Greatly appreciated by me, since I “just can’t – grammar”.

This cake probably struck my interest because it incorporates one of my favorite flavors- coffee. I’m sure many of you can relate but I am a total caffeine junky and mixing that with some dark chocolate adds more a bitter bite to what you would think could be an extremely sweet and dense cake. Speaking of dense, the cake itself (i’m told – more on that later) has a meringue base, which leaves it lighter than you would imagine from a flourless cake.

Starting with a bowl of dense chocolate, butter and other ingredients and slowly adding the meringue actually made this sort of fun. You begin to “thin out” the chocolate mixture and carefully fold in the meringue, which makes it feel light, fluffy and delicate.

You make this cake in a greased spring form pan and I lined mine with parchment paper to easily slide it off the pan and onto a cake stand.

I actually own mini spring form pans, so next time I might make miniatures to give away! Miniature anything is always a win.

The cake should be crackly on the top and a bit rough around the sides. so make sure you give it a quick swipe around the edges with a knife before unhinging your pan. I forgot and broke my cake apart slightly in one spot. Top with powdered sugar.

If you were wondering why Portia wasn’t “assisting” in the creation of this cake, it’s because she was banned from the kitchen during the creation. As you may not know- chocolate is toxic to dogs, especially dark chocolate, the darker and more “raw” the worse. So I did not want her around in case a stray chocolate chunk went flying onto the floor.

She was, however, very interested in checking out the finished product when it came out.

As far as how this cake tastes- I wouldn’t know. I finished this cake and ran out to some appointments and my evening job. When I came home it was gone! That’s right, my husband ate the entire thing. So I’m going to say it’s probably pretty good. He enjoyed it and said it wasn’t too sweet (win for espresso). So I will definitely be making minis (and hiding one for myself) soon!

Flour-less Dark Chocolate Espresso Cake

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 6 oz dark chocolate
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp instant espresso powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9″ spring form pan. Melt the butter and chocolate over simmering water (double boiler) or carefully in the microwave and stir together.

Beat together your egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar until pale in color. Add espresso powder and salt and beat another minute. Add vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture, beat another minute.

In your mixer, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually add your remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Make sure to add it slowly as not to collapse your eggs. Beat until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes.

Slowly fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture. I did mine in 3 batches and it is ok to have streaks, you don’t want to over mix and make the cake dense.

Pour batter into spring form pan and bake until set, about 40 minutes. Let cake cool completely on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edge of the cake and release from pan. Transfer to a plate and top with powdered sugar.